The earth, no longer under the dominion of Saturn, begins to exhibit marks of degeneracy.
But when good Saturn, banish’d from above, Was driven to hell, the world was under Jove. Succeeding times a silver age behold, Excelling brass, but more excell’d by gold. Then summer, autumn, winter, did appear, And spring was but a season of the year; The sun his annual course obliquely made, Good days contracted, and enlarged the bad. Then air with sultry heats began to glow, The wings of winds were clogg’d with ice and snow; And shivering mortals, into houses driven, Sought shelter from the inclemency of heaven. Those houses, then, were caves or homely sheds, With twining osiers fenced, and moss their beds. Then ploughs, for seed, the fruitful furrows broke, And oxen labour’d first beneath the yoke.